As has all ready been mentioned the only real answer is a posh heated garage. Which is beyond most of us and why I gave up trying to beat condensation, I have found the cheap fleecy type blankets along with an old bed sheet and WD40 covering my bikes helps some but the last two nights have been particulary bad requiring a good wiping down and the garage door left open to aid circulation during the day.

Personally I just live with it. After frosty weather I have icicles hanging off my bikes...pools of water on the bench etc. Maybe that's why my 3 year old Guzzi has rust on the chrome bits...or is it because it's Italian? Why do so many women object to having bikes in the living room?. I would not mind storing her shoe collection in the shed! I consider myself lucky to have a garage....

here we go again. this crops up on all bike forums every winter, i always make the same comments, and then everyone else jumps in with their own opinions. of course ive the advantage of having been a commercial heating engineer for 25 years but dont let that sway you. ok, some facts,
yes, ventilation is important, but not too much. condensation is moisture condensing from the air on a cold surface. the more air you pass through it, the more moisture you will get. heating is handy, but it produces more warm air and that condenses on cold surfaces, giving you the same problem. the solution to this is insulation, its not expensive to do, but you will find it more effective than any number of fans and heaters. where the concrete panels meet, screw some wooden slate batons to the wall, and panel over them with timber, hardboard, mdf, ply, whatever you can get hold of cheaply. between the panelling and the concrete you need some kind of insulation, ive been digging kingspan out of skips when i see it, but my shed walls are a mix of foam, polystyrene, and my latest fave, several layers of corrugated cardboard. cos its completely free! in fact my current 28 foot by 12 foot shed has cost me not a single penny to insulate! its more important to insulate the roof though, polystyrene sheets are chap enough but you need to cover them over with something to protect the insulation and also reduce the risk of fire. this will not only cut out the cold and reduce condensation in the winter, but will also prevent it getting unbearably hot in the summer. only after youve insulated the garage should you begin to worry about heating and ventilation fans.

Working on my garage today, I found out one reason why it is so damp. It has double wooden doors, one of which is fixed shut and has cupboards and a work bench in front of it. I cleared everything out from that corner to find that the door is so rotten that rain simply comes through the door and is sitting on the floor in a damp puddle, along with all of the sawdust and general dirt. I have fixed a piece of timber to be floor to deflect the rain and keep it out for now, but in the summer I shall have to make some new doors. With luck, that will alleviate the problem somewhat.

I have a small terrible little steel shed to hide my bikes and I found some success by adding vents to the front and sides (plastic replacement heat registers worked well and are super cheap) which I open during the day and close at night. The cross ventilation is fantastic. Also a big bag of cheap charcoal dumped into a pail or two takes a lot of moisture out of the air. During winter I mist them (especially chrome bits) with wd40. I am thinking of adding a solar powered vent fan for the summer months as the shed gets really hot inside. My biggest problem is the roof vents that allows in blowing rain, so really thin plastic drop cloth sheeting does well. My buddy uses heavy horse blankets to keep his metric cruiser shiny in his ancient barn, he's got it easy compared to us though, there's not much actual metal on the modern Yamaha's!!

as johnr suggests i have insulated my garage with that foam board that is used to insulate buildings, its got foil on each side and is about 3 inches thick, and i bought a cheap de humidifier from the diy shop, this drains into a 5 gallon drum which i empty once a week, the running costs are very low, the difference is incredible, some investment is involved obviously but well worth it if you value your kit

dudley472 wrote:as johnr suggests i have insulated my garage with that foam board that is used to insulate buildings, its got foil on each side and is about 3 inches thick, and i bought a cheap de humidifier from the diy shop, this drains into a 5 gallon drum which i empty once a week, the running costs are very low, the difference is incredible, some investment is involved obviously but well worth it if you value your kit

I seem to remember dehumidifiers put out distilled water, which you can top up your batteries with